“Hold on,” Ludwig heard as he was leaving the room.
Looking behind him, Ludwig saw Kassandra with a frustrated look on her face.
“What is it?” Ludwig asked.
“How did you do that?” She asked him. “How did you figure out the way to make that potion? The teacher herself didn’t say anything… and the herbs they all look similar…”
Ludwig looked at her own potion and noticed that it was incredibly close to what the teacher had made.
“Analysis,” Ludwig said.
“That’s a really terrible way of explaining things…” she replied.
Ludwig thought for a moment, he couldn’t just tell her that he could see the specific details of the herbs thanks to his ‘system’ so he needed a way to convince her.
“The teacher made sure to display the ice pearl to us and show us that it is important. But honestly, that felt like a trick, because there are dozens of ways to shut down an alchemical reaction that doesn’t need the pearl,” he said.
“I suppose that’s right, she did stop some explosions using her own magic…”
“And that was all I needed to know that the pearl’s primary objective wasn’t to shut down the reaction, so it must have another purpose… and seeing that using the whole pearl immediately freezes the pot, if I were to use smaller portions of it, it would cool down the incredibly volatile reaction,” he added.
“That… logical,” she replied reluctantly.
“And if the pearl is needed, then that means that I need a way to increase the temperature of the concoction,” Ludwig said as he pointed at a busted pot from one of the students. “That guy, he used the flower and the roots of the Drakebane, and the temperature of the whole thing rose up incredibly. So I assumed by doing that, I can increase the heat, and by adding pieces of the pearl I can cool it down without it freezing, so I tried it, and it worked…” Ludwig replied while shrugging.
“That’s a lot of baseless assumptions,” Kassandra said.
“The first alchemist also began by making assumptions and attempts, I believe the goal of this class isn’t to teach you alchemy, but to teach us how to think outside the box and take our own path forward. If we just replicate what others have made we won’t learn we’ll only be a replica of someone else’s efforts, is what I believe,” Ludwig finalized his words leaving Kassandra to her thoughts.
Just as he left the room, he heard students talking about him in hushed tones.
“I can’t believe that guy… you saw how he was acting in class, being all haughty and stuff…”
“Yeah, he was saying he didn’t know much on his first day, but now he’s good at alchemy, and you remember people saying he did use Exhaust…
“Yeah, the rumors of him killing Thomas are probably true… if he’s that good, he could have easily done that, he probably said that he didn’t know anything about magic the first day to make us drop our guards…”
The words continued on, and Ludwig didn’t humor any of them as he went past the students and outside the halls of the academy.
He sighed a bit, and thought of what he was going to do for the rest of the day.
The shouts and cries of battle from afar piqued his interest and he once again found himself headed toward the training area for the swordsmen of the academy.
The teacher there was diligently guiding everyone to follow her pace and practice. And once she saw Ludwig, “You got here on time, Everyone, halt,” she said and everyone in the area stopped.
“This is Ludwig Heart, some of you know him,” she said.
The students all took note of Ludwig and some even began talking about last night’s incident.
“He will be joining your training from here onwards,” she said. “Ludwig, I believe you somewhat managed the first level of the Imperial Art,” she said.
“To an extent,” Ludwig replied.
“Good, then grab a training sword and follow everyone’s moves,” she said as she began swinging.
Everyone followed her and so did Ludwig as he stood at the last row. Making sure that every swing of his was perfectly following the [Trace] projection in front of him.
Time went by as Ludwig followed the teachings of Joana and the whole class seemed to get drenched in sweat and exhaustion after the first two hours. And four more hours, the area looked almost void of life.
Some had outright fallen unconscious, while many others gave up as their arms felt numb.
There were only two students left who were still following the teacher.
Ludwig of course, since he had no concept of stamina. And a young man who Ludwig remembers from the first time he came to this place.
“Alright kids, stop or your arms will fall off,” the teacher said.
Only then did the student that ‘survived’ with Ludwig fall to his knee, gasping for desperate breath.
The kid with blue eyes and blue hair looked at Ludwig saying, “You’re a monster…”
“I can say the same to you,” Ludwig replied.
Though Ludwig was indeed an undead monster that didn’t need any stamina to work and move or act, the kid next to him was practically a genius type of monster. A human kid with a stamina that rivals a monster.
“Good, good, we have promising younglings this year. Von Hubert, you have done well, you should go and rest for now. Ludwig, I need to speak to you for a second,” she said.
Ludwig followed her to the same room from the last time, and was worried that she might have caught on to what happened yesterday.
Just as he entered the training room, she closed it.
“Show me, show me how much you learned from the Imperial Swordsmanship Art.”
Ludwig began tracing the moves, succeeding in connecting the first and second stances in a single flow.
This impressed the teacher enough that she held Ludwig hostage for the next four hours.
Later that night Ludwig headed back to his room to rest, or more like to continue his mental training. Van Dijk had given Ludwig the book of [Mana Control] and within the book were the first-tier spells of all elemental magic. Not including the dark or the light type of magic.
His task was simple. To understand the teachings of the book, and learn Mana Control, and have a good start in simple first tier magic. Ludwig was taking his first steps in becoming a mage.
Ludwig flipped the pages as he read. Unbeknownst to him that this small book may very well change his entire life and how he views this world.